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Very Short Blog Posts

Very Short Blog Posts (5): Understanding the Requirements

People often suggest that “understanding the requirements” is an essential step before you can begin testing. This may be true for checking or formal testing—examining a product in a specific way, or to check specific facts. But understanding the requirements is not a necessary precursor to testing, which is learning about a product through experimentation (a larger activity which might include checking) and creating the conditions to make that activity … Read more

Very Short Blog Posts (4): Leaves and Trees

Having trouble understanding why James Bach and I think it’s important to distinguish between checking and testing? Consider this: a pile of leaves is not a tree. Leaves are important parts of trees, but there’s a lot more to a tree than just its leaves. The leaves owe their existence to being part of a larger system of the tree. Nature makes sure that leaves drop off and are replaced … Read more

Very Short Blog Posts (3): The Software Is Already Broken

Some testers have got into the habit of saying that “we break the software”. That leads to psychological and political problems: “The product was fine until the testers broke it.” The software is what it is, either broken or not, when we get it. So, try saying “We look for problems that could threaten the value of the software.” As James Bach says, the only things we break are illusions.

Very Short Blog Posts (2): Confidence

It is not the job of testing to build confidence in the product. Confidence is a relationship between the product and some stakeholder. It is much more the job of testing to identify problems in the product—and in people’s perceptions of the product—that are based on or that would lead to unwarranted confidence.